the locations. the first two are the brothers julian castro and joaquin castro, secretary castro, congressman castro, joining us together. they've been without power, been without water this week and they have a story to tell about what it's been like in texas. >> yeah. the situation in texas right now -- i mean, i spoke with lina hidalgo from harris county earlier in the hour, and elected officials trying to let the country know what's going on there in part because texas needs help from the rest of the country. but to see the state's specific collapse there, it is a scary, scary thing for a state with that many people in it. >> and it was tragically predictable the way that power system is set up there. >> exactly. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. the one thing the junior senator from texas never has is the element of surprise. no one is ever surprised by how

low he can go. in 2016 senator lindsey graham said, "if you killed ted cruz on the floor of the senate and the trial was in the senate, nobody would convict you." lindsey graham's willingness to say that publicly about a senator is proof of how universally senator cruz is disliked in the senate, including by some people he may think of as friends. the "new york times" has obtained text messages from friends of the cruz family that show heidi cruz saying that their house was freezing and inviting everyone in the neighborhood to join them at the ritz carlton in cancun where they have stayed several times, according to the texts obtained by the "new york times." ms. cruz told the neighbors that they'd be coming back from cancun on sunday. that was the plan. nbc news has learned that

senator cruz's return flight from cancun was scheduled for sunday until it was suddenly changed at 6:00 a.m. this morning so that the senator could fly back to houston today. and the only reason senator cruz came back to texas today is because he got caught sneaking off to cancun in the middle of a crisis, a life-threatening crisis for the people in the state he is supposed to represent. and the reason he snuck off to cancun, and here the story spreads far beyond senator cruz to the republican party more generally, the reason he snuck off to cancun is because senator cruz does not understand what leadership is and like so many other elected officials he does not understand what leadership does. he does not understand that leadership matters, but luckily for senator cruz, his local member of congress who represents him in the house of representatives does understand those things. congresswoman lizzy fletcher is

a democrat, and senator cruz lives in her houston district. she says texas is facing an all-hands-on-deck situation. she told the "new york times" that she, quote, was out of power herself until wednesday and charged her phone in her car to continue to make calls to the house speaker, fema and other agencies too busy she said to think about mr. cruz's decision to leave the state at this time. leadership matters, she said. our first guests tonight understand that leadership matters. they have not left texas during this crisis. they've been without power. they've been without water. but congressman joaquin castro is struggling through the crisis just like his san antonio constituents and he's trying to get help for everyone who needs it. so is his brother, former housing and urban development secretary julian castro, who has also been without power and water this week in his texas home. they'll both join us in a moment. every member of the house and

senate has people in their offices who are devoted to what they call constituent service. many of them have areas of expertise like immigration law that they help constituents with all day every day. the phone never stops ringing with calls from people who desperately need help, desperately need constituent service. that is what senator cruz abandoned when he flew 800 miles south to the warmth and luxury of the ritz carlton hotel. constituent service is what congresswoman lizzie fletcher has been doing all week for her constituents, senator cruz and his neighbors. while congressman joaquin castro was on the senate floor last week prosecuting donald trump in the senate impeachment trial, his staff in his district office in texas was working on constituent service. many of the calls for help the congressional staff handle are misdirected, they are problems

involving city government or state government instead of federal government. but the good congressional staff don't give up just because the problem is not squarely within their jurisdiction. we saw a perfect example of this from someone who provided constituent service for 36 years to the people of delaware. at a town hall this week, president biden took a question from the mother of a 19-year-old son who has pulmonary disease and is highly vulnerable to covid-19 and asked if her 19-year-old son could get the vaccine sooner than other 19-year-olds? president biden explained that the states decide exactly who qualifies for the vaccine and that he can make recommendations but he cannot order the states to change their priorities. it was a perfectly correct policy answer by a president. but a senator who handled constituent service questions like that in town halls for 36 years could not leave it there. >> but here's what i'd like to

do. if you're willing, i'll stay around after this is over and maybe we can talk a few minutes and see if i can get you some help. [ applause ] >> america learned the hard way through donald trump that you cannot teach empathy. senator cruz is not the only politician who lacks empathy. but he's one of the few who have been stupid enough to publicly prove that he does not care about his constituents' suffering. you know tim russert's name because of his empathy. tim russert was the brilliant host of "meet the press" for 17 years when he suddenly died of heart failure in 2008. he mastered politics in partnership with new york senator daniel patrick moynihan, a harvard professor who was elected to the senate in 1976. tim russert was 27 years old, and after volunteering in the successful moynihan senate campaign tim ran the small

constituent service office that senator moynihan established in buffalo. and three weeks after senator moynihan was sworn in, buffalo was buried in the blizzard of 1977 with some snow drifts that were 27 feet high. tim russert got on the phone, urged senator moynihan to come to buffalo as soon as possible, and he drafted a letter to the president requesting emergency federal assistance which president carter then delivered to buffalo. and when senator moynihan arrived in buffalo in the middle of that crisis and saw tim russert handling that crisis, senator moynihan decided that as soon as buffalo recovered from that blizzard he wanted tim russert to come to work in the washington office. tim russert never left washington. tim wrote this about his first year in the russell senate office building, "my difficult moments came not with the press but with a few of moynihan's other staffers.

they were serious, high-powered intellectuals, ivy league graduates. i was sometimes intimidated in their presence." tim russert worked on a garbage truck to pay for his education. pat moynihan shined shoes in times square when he was going to high school in harlem. and when pat moynihan notice the tim's occasional discomfort around the ivy league-educated staffers senator moynihan took tim aside and he said, let me tell you something, what they know you can learn. but what you know, they will never learn. ivy league educated senator cruz will never learn what tim russert knew and what joe biden personifies because empathy is not something you can memorize for the s.a.t.s. and in a crisis leadership matters. leading off our discussion tonight, julian castro, former mayor of san antonio, texas, he was secretary of housing and urban development in the obama

administration. also with us democratic congressman joaquin castro of texas. he represents the san antonio area. and this is the first time that i have had the brothers castro together on this program. it is a great honor. thank you for doing this. let me begin with you, congressman. you've come off a week, a very intense week of prosecuting donald trump in the senate trial, and you find yourself thrown into this crisis at home. what has it been like for you day to day in texas this week? >> yeah, lawrence. i thought that the senate impeachment trial was going to be the highlight of my february. and we wrapped that up saturday evening and i flew home early sunday morning and by sunday night my power was going off just like it started going off for millions of texans and thousands of san antonians. and so my family and i were without power for about 55 hours. my mom, she had her water pipe

bust and her garage is flooded with water right now. it's just been a real humanitarian disaster in texas. it's been a failure of leadership of the governor and the public utilities commission and ercot to prepare the state for this. but most of all it's times like these just like the early days of the pandemic where in congress you have to tell your staff that whatever else you all are working on, you've got to focus very intensely for this period of time on just constituent services. we always do constituent services but this is when you get all the calls and the e-mails, facebook messages, instagram messages, tweets, where everybody is desperate for help. and so that's what i've been focused on the last several days here in san antonio. >> and secretary castro, you of course know from your time as mayor, your time working in the federal government, that when a constituent's -- when people out

there need help they call whatever number they can find. it might be city hall, it might be a member of congress, it might be a federal agency of some kind that they can get on the phone, anyone they can get on the phone. what has this week been like for you and what have you seen people going through as you've tried to struggle through this week yourself? >> well, i've seen a lot of people hurting, especially the most vulnerable people in our community. we're both here in san antonio. it's gotten into the single digits a couple nights ago, it's remained under freezing for the last few days. folks who were homeless on the streets, people who are medically compromised. i had two neighbors hon had to be evacuated because they're medically compromised. they rely on devices that need electricity. so they had to be moved from there. my family and i fortunately have had it a little bit better than joaquin and his family and many others. our power was out over a 36-hour

period about half that time and our water was out for seven or eight hours. but compared to what a lot of people have gone through that's nothing. just to give you a sense of where we're at now, the san antonio food bank is establishing five megasites this weekend to distribute free food to families. and the san antonio water system tomorrow will have seven mega distribution sites around the san antonio area to distribute up to five gallons of clean drinking water per family. that's where we're at right now. and leadership absolutely is about being present right now. people need something in this crisis, they don't know who to call often. and let me tell you, lawrence, i can tell you this as a former mayor and as somebody that took these calls from elected officials when i served as secretary of hud. you better believe that it matters whether a united states

senator is the one calling your department asking for something. thankfully, fema is on the job. the biden administration very early on on sunday declared an emergency declaration. that fema is distributing 729,000 liters of clean water to texas, distributing 60,000 blankets, 225,000 meals in our state. so the federal government is actually doing its job, but it matters whether it's the elected officials who are the ones pressing the case. and that's what we've been missing here in terms of our state leaders and apparently some of our federal leadership as well. >> congressman castro, what reforms to the energy arrangements of texas do you believe should be made with what's been learned this week? >> oh, i mean, there's going to have to be a full investigation i think both federal and state investigations into what went wrong.

we know some of those things because in 2011 the federal government actually recommended to ercot some reforms that they should make and i don't know that they made any of those. so some of them we know. but ultimately i think that the grid in texas has got to be better integrated with the rest of the country. and it's got to be better prepared for these kinds of weather events. unfortunately in texas you've got people high up in state government who don't believe in climate science, who deny climate change, and also people who are absolutely married to the fossil fuel industry. so when you combine all of those things it has made for, in this case, a dangerous mix. >> with ercot i only remember what the first and last letters mean. the first one is energy. the last one is texas. secretary castro, that's the

agency that runs the energy -- the power system in texas. and the state officials have been trying to blame the dysfunction of that system on people who've had nothing to do with the design of it. >> oh, that's right. greg abbott went on fox news and he's trying to blame aoc and the green new deal, which is not even in place right now. but the important point here is that this is not a breakdown in the system. this is a system that is broken down by design. a system that did not require the winterization of either the thermal production facilities or any other type of energy production facilities. did not incentivize it either. and a system that is allowing outrageous price gouging, price spikes, just to give you a sense, that went from $30 per megawatt hour to $9,000 per

megawatt hour at the very time when texans need it the most. and there was reporting out today quoting one of the natural gas producers that said that this experience had been like hitting the jackpot. these are the folks who are being rewarded. you know, this is a tale as old as time of greed and of cronyism that has led to the breakdown that we're seeing today. >> secretary julian castro and congressman joaquin castro, thank you both very much for joining us from texas tonight. we really appreciate it. thank you. and when we come back, former texas state senator wendy davis will join us. she has been struggling this week without power and without water in her own home and she has seen the struggles of other texans. she will join us next.

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today president biden declared a state of emergency in texas, oklahoma and louisiana. his administration authorized fema to send generators, diesel fuel, water, blankets and more to help with the crisis as hundreds of thousands are still without power and heat days after the winter storm first hit the region. the owner of this furniture store in houston opened his doors to freezing residents as a warming center. >> it was colder in my living room than inside the

refrigerator. that's how told it was. >> the "texas tribune" reports nearly half of all texans, roughly 14 million people, are experiencing water disruptions. millions of under notices to boil their water before using it for drinking or cooking but others have no running water at all. in austin, officials are warning they could be without water for days. water issues have forced some hospitals to transfer patients. residents are also struggling to buy food, forced to wait in long lines at grocery stores only to find empty shelves once they get inside some of those stores. >> there's no water in the store. we only have like two cases of water left. so we're trying to divide it between two families and it's really hard. we don't know what the next day is going to look like and that's the scary part. >> joining us now is former texas state senator wendy davis.

senator davis, thank you very much for joining us tonight. you apparently have electricity now. we hope it lasts through the next few minutes. what has your week been like so far and what does texas government need to do? >> it's been a stressful week, lawrence. thank you so much for having me on to talk a little bit about our experiences here in texas tonight. we in my home were without electricity from sunday until yesterday morning and we've been without water and continue to be without water right now. but we are so fortunate compared to so many in our state. i have a fireplace that i could be warmed by. i have a gas stove that i could still cook food on and plenty of candles to provide light and a friend's home who offered me an opportunity to go take a shower yesterday. but there are people living in conditions across the state still tonight who do not have

electricity. here in austin about 40,000 people still without electric power. we've seen people talking about experiences in their home where the temperatures inside their homes have dipped into the 30s and of course we know that people have gone to desperate measures to try to stay warm and they've lost their lives as a consequence of doing that. this is a colossal failure of leadership. and of course it's a natural occurrence in the sense that this is a weather-related incident, and we can talk about the big picture of climate change and how this sort of thing ought to be preventable. but even in the shorter, more immediate terms we have leaders here who have failed to make sure that we are prepared for moments like this, and it's costing texans their lives, and there's honestly no excuse for it whatsoever.

>> it's also costing apparently a huge amount of money for some people. ercot is the electric reliability council of texas. i have to have it written down because i can never remember it. and they have left a wildly unregulated market that has left some people being highly exploited during this week. i've read accounts of people who heated their homes last winter for a few hundred dollars who've been charged thousands of dollars a day, a day to try to heat their homes this week. >> that's right. lawrence, it's such a massive failure to regulate this fossil fuel industry here in texas. we had this experience back in 2011 when i was in the texas senate, we had a catastrophic winter weather occurrence like this during the super bowl, you may remember. and as a legislature, we were really pushing to force the kind of accountability that ought to

be in place to prevent this kind of severe weather disaster. of course secretary castro was talking a moment ago about some of those things that need to happen. weatherization should be a required regulation of our energy providers. making sure that they have reserves on hand so that they have the extra fuel needed when they have these heightened requirements for power. and instead, what has happened in the last few days, six days ago as secretary of state castro was pointing out, the wholesale cost of a kilowatt hour of electricity provided to these energy providers was $30 an hour. in the last couple days it shot up to $9,000 an hour. and there's no regulation in place to protect people from this kind of price gouging. so the whole system needs to be

reviewed and we need to help texans understand that when republicans are talking about deregulation and staying away from regulation and how bad it is for them, this is exactly the kind of thing that happens because deregulation simply means that fossil fuel providers are not going to be held to account and people unfortunately are going to be on the receiving end of that and in some instances a deadly receiving end of that. >> senator, there are people who are obviously going to be hit with massive bills, thousands and thousands of dollars for a few days of heat. they're not going to be able to pay those bills. this is going to create bankruptcies. is there any possibility of the texas government that created this problem somehow trying to deal with the problems that these people are going to face in trying to deal with those bills? >> well, there certainly should be and you probably saw in the last couple of days the governor saying he's going to call for, you know, a hearing and a review

of ercot. but let me make it very clear to everyone who is watching. ercot answers to the state legislature. they answer to the governor. he appoints the ercot board and they are regulated by the state. they don't make their own rules. the state makes those rules. and so the state leaders need to be held accountable for that. and it also obviously has to be said that people like senator ted cruz, instead of going to cancun on vacation with his family, ought to be here asking the very question that you just asked, lawrence, what are we going to do to make sure that people who have already been harmed so tremendously by the dire weather conditions here aren't going to be harmed even further by getting price gouging bills at the end of all of this. >> wendy davis, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i'm glad you have at least electricity tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you, lawrence.

>> and coming up, the manhattan district attorney has made a surprising move and just added a new prosecutor to the investigation of donald trump, and that prosecutor has extensive experience investigating organized crime. former federal prosecutor andrew weissmann joins us next. gillette proglide. five blades and a pivoting flexball designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke. so you're ready for the day with a fresh face for a fresh start. for a limited time get a 5th cartridge free. wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live.

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ignore proper ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. a successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. including prioritizing vaccines for educators. parents and educators agree: reopen schools. putting safety first. we have breaking news from the "new york times" from the manhattan district attorney's investigation against donald trump. and in a highly unusual move, the district attorney hired an expert in organized crime investigations to help lead the investigation of donald trump. mark pomerantz is a former federal prosecutor that the "new new york times" says, "has deep experience investigating and defending white-collar and organized crime cases." the "times" reports that mr.

pomerantz was sworn in earlier this month to serve as a special assistant district attorney. mark pomerantz was a federal prosecutor in the early 1980s. then the "times" reports in private practice he developed a specialty in organized crime and was involved in a 1988 case that helps determine the legal definition of racketeering. mr. pomerantz returned to the manhattan u.s. attorney's office to head the criminal division between 1997 and 1999, overseeing major securities fraud and organized crime cases, perhaps most prominently against john a. gotti, the gambino boss. when the "times" broke this news today, our next guest tweeted, "mark pomerantz is the real deal. this would not be happening if there were not a there there." and joining us now is andrew

weissman, former federal prosecutor who investigated donald trump in the mueller investigation. he is an nbc news and msnbc legal analyst. and, andrew, i saw that "new york times" headline. i didn't know anything about mr. pomerantz. i read the story and saw your tweet and i realized this was a big deal. >> yeah. lawrence, i had the same reaction. it's useful for me to tell people why people like me and people in the new york legal profession basically perked up at that story. mark pomerantz is very well known. he's a lion of the whies clar criminal defense bar. and it's not so much that he had a career as a great prosecutor. he was the criminal chief in the southern district of new york at the same time i was the criminal chief in the eastern district of new york. but he has had an incredible career in the last couple of decades as a white-collar defense lawyer.

and i think this is really smart of cy vance. what you want on your team is somebody who has the chops to know where are the holes, where are the gaps in your case. as well as he has the experience to put it together. and he's also somebody who's not going to do this to make a name for himself. although he may not be known to your viewers, he's somebody who has really got a glittering resume and he's not doing this to make a name for himself. he's doing this to make a case. and i don't think he'd be leaving sort of a lucrative private practice if this was something that was not going to go anywhere. >> i just want to make a point for the audience about how unusual this is. the district attorney's offices around the country, they have generally everybody they need to handle whatever comes their way within their jurisdictions and they don't very often reach out and say we need someone, we need

someone special for this, especially the manhattan district attorney's office, which is by far the most high powered, most sophisticated district attorney's office in america. it has jurisdiction over wall street, it has jurisdiction over the most complex range of human activity you can imagine, and they decided, they decided they needed help, they need to bring in someone special for this. >> well, you're absolutely right. this is unusual, but it also shows that cy vance is secure enough not to be the kind of prosecutor who says, don't worry, we know everything and we can do it on our own. as i said, having somebody who is that experienced as mark pomerantz on your team is a really smart move. one of the down sides in prosecutors' offices is you have a lot of young people who can be eager and can work really hard,

but sometimes they get their pockets picked by experienced white collar defense lawyers and mark pomerantz is not going to allow that to happen. so i think for your viewers, they should really view this as things are heating up. you now have somebody on the team who is just superb. >> and we didn't learn anything more about the evidence today. we know that they are investigating possible business issues and tax issues with the trump organization. we know they're investigating payments to ivanka trump and others within that group. we understand that. this news was simply this is who has been added to the team. and if you're the trump defense team watching that development today, you know that things just got worse for you. >> absolutely. so two things that got worse for you are mark pomerantz joining the team and january 20th.

because president trump is no longer the president and the advantages that he has in a court of law in terms of delaying things, in terms of privileges disappeared on the 20th. so he is now like an ordinary citizen in terms of how cy vance is going to be looking at him and this looks like it's proceeding like any white collar case where you're looking at bank fraud and tax fraud and it's not that complicated where you're going to look to see is when you're dealing with the banks, are you artificially inflating your assets and deflating debts and when you're dealing with the tax authorities in new york are you doing the opposite. in order to pay less taxes. and you create a timeline that shows inconsistent statements. it's exactly what we did when we were investigating paul manafort. and having somebody like mark on

the team, perfect move. >> andrew weissmann, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. and after this break, we will be joined by another guest from texas, dr. peter hotez, will join us to consider among other issues the severe weather that has disrupted covid-19 vaccination shipments across the country. dr. peter hotez will join us next. as a cement mason, i use the dove bar... because i work with a lot... of dust and dirt. just washing... the dirt and the grime off... and just bringing you... back...to you. you see the glow? that's a dove bar. dove cleans effectively, cares beautifully. did you know you can go to libertymutual.com you see the glow? that's a dove bar. to customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need?

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severe winter weather is adding to the confusion and frustration of the country's vaccination efforts. hazardous road conditions have slowed deliveries at major distribution facilities in memphis, louisville and dallas, forcing many cities and states to delay or cancel vaccination appointments. here what's dr. anthony fauci told andrea mitchell earlier today. >> well, obviously it's an issue.

it's been slowed down, in some places going to a grinding halt. we're just going to have to make up for it, as soon as the weather lifts a bit and the ice melts and we can get the trucks out and the people out and the vaccines into people's arms we're going to have to make up for, it namely do double time when this thing clears up. >> joining us now from texas is dr. peter hotez, dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine and the director of the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital in houston. dr. hotez, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i know it isn't easy for you this week. tell us what you've been going through this week. and have you suffered from the power failure and loss of water? >> just like the other stories you've heard, lawrence, we've been without power and water for three days. we finally got it back on this afternoon. so it's been a struggle. i can't say we're the worst off by any stretch. we do have a special needs adult daughter that adds to the challenges and that's been

tough. but the power is back on now and a little bit of water so hopefully we will have turned the corner on this. >> and doctor, one more thing about texas before we get to the vaccine more generally. and hospitals that have lost their water supply have had tremendous challenges in dealing with patients and what kind of chaos has that created in the medical system? >> well, it's the perfect storm of things. we've had our emergency rooms filled with patients. we've had to bring in individuals who ordinarily would get dialysis at dialysis centers or dialysis at home. we've had water shortages in some hospitals across the state. we've had to deal with power outages in many hospitals and lack of sufficient backup generator support. so this has been really problematic. you know, it's like a domino effect.

once a few things start to fall, then everything starts to fall apart and it's been a very troubling, chaotic time for us. >> what has happened to vaccine distribution in the state of texas this week? >> my understanding is we've had to interrupt some of the shipments, either because the planes couldn't land because of the icy conditions and had to be rerouted and that may have happened in some instances or the fact that remember these two mrna vaccines from moderna and pfizer are pretty fussy, deep freezer requirements. and if you can't maintain the deep freezer requirements that presents an added challenge. so the consequence of this is we had hoped that what we had heard initially was this was just going to be a one-day event and then we'll get back online tuesday or wednesday. and then with each passing day the realization came that we have probably about a week delay. and the consequences of that are really concerning because we're

trying to vaccinate the u.s. population, including the population of texas ahead of this variant that's coming out of the united kingdom, the b-117 variant, which we think will start accelerating cases again. and now there's new information posted by the uk government on their website this week that the mortality rates, the death rates are higher with this variant. so we're in a race now to race against vaccinating the u.s. population before this variant takes over and that's what it's looking like based on the epidemiological models and the experiences of what we saw in southern england late last year. >> do we have any reports of facilities in texas basically losing power, therefore losing the refrigeration capacity for the vaccine and therefore losing some viable vaccine? >> not necessarily hospitals but we've heard of instances where a lot of vaccine is going to go bad. there was a quick rush to

vaccinate anybody who we could find in order to not throw those vaccines away. the message i've been sending in the state of texas is the worst thing can you do is throw vaccine away. i don't care whether it's 1a, 1b, 1c, don't throw any vaccine away. it's all good in terms eventually helping us interrupt transmission. so people have gotten that message. in one case at rice university there was that issue and rather than go to waste, the decision was made, and i think it was a good one, hey, they're here, the rice students, they're here, vaccinate them. it's certainly better than having it go to waste. >> this just adds to an already pronounced sense of frustration around the country with vaccine distribution. now those complications have become almost indescribable in texas. >> yeah, i mean, the truth is we're still at the very early stages of this. we've only given a single dose

to about 12% of the population, about 40 million people. remember where we want to get to. we want to interrupt virus transmission we're looking at having to vaccinate 3/4 of the american people with two doses of vaccine with most of those operation warp speed vaccines. so you're talking about half a billion immunizations, and we've only gotten about 41 million. and again, the original plan was we were going to do this by the fall and the biden administration put forward an excellent plan in place to do that. but then with the realization the uk variant was gaining ascendancy we had to make some quick adjustments and now we've got to try to race ahead of that variant and do this by late spring early summer. >> dr. peter hotez, thank you for joining us tonight, and good luck getting through the rest of the week in texas. >> thanks, lawrence. appreciate being on. >> thank you. well, the first appearance on this program by jaime harrison

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the brennan center for justice reports that republicans in state legislatures around the country have introduced 165 bills to make voting more difficult in this country after high voter turnout delivered the presidency to joe biden. in south carolina republicans have introduced a bill in the state legislature to expand the state election commission and give republicans even more control over the election process in south carolina. joining us now, jaime harrison of south carolina, who is the new chair of the democratic national committee. thank you very much for joining us tonight, mr. chairman. a real pleasure to have you

here. >> thank you for having me, lawrence. >> so your job, which, you know, for many years people thought of as voter turnout, voter turnout, you now have to fight for the right to vote and maintaining the right to vote in your own state, south carolina, and around the country. >> lawrence, it's sad. you know, we send our sons and daughters overseas to fight for democracy for other nations and here in this country the republicans find every way that they can to suppress the vote in this nation. our greatest right as american citizens is our right to vote, and we have to protect that. we need to expand that right so that more people can enjoy it. you know, just this past week the rnc launched their committee on election integrity. that's a joke. that's like having the foxes guard the hen house. there is no way that they understand or know what any integrity in elections look like. they have 165 bills in 33 states

to take away the rights to vote for people here in this country, and it's just laughable to see that they want to be the party on election integrity. >> so what is your party's plan to counter this republican effort? and if some of those bills pass, will you need new get-out-the-vote techniques in those states? >> we will. but what i hope passes, lawrence, is hr-1 and the senate resolution 1, which is for the people act. this is a bill that was passed in the house last congress. we hope that it will get passed again this congress and get a signature by president joe biden. this would expand voting rights here in this country, make sure that we can open up voter registration, automatic registration, same-day registration, end these senseless purges. we have to do all we can to

protect the right to vote of all americans. and so i'm proud of that legislation. we will be promoting that. and in the meantime the dnc has a voting protection effort that is geared up to fight back. marc elias is our attorney. we're going to fight back against all of these oppressive laws we see in many of these states. >> so georgia was, i guess, the biggest surprise state in the wins for joe biden this time around. of course, it was tracking in that direction. we started to see it moving that way over the last few years. what is the next georgia on your horizon? >> well, listen, i think texas is the next georgia. hopefully in a year or two, a few years, south carolina is the next georgia. you know, we haven't forgotten and aren't going to give up on florida. you know, the georgias and the arizonas, that's really going to be my focus over the court of the next four years as the dnc chair, to be planting the seeds

in these states. that's why we're going to net a 50-state strategy going back to howard dean to strengthen our state parties so we can foster the growth of these georgias and arizonas all across this great nation of ours. >> and how important is it for you to be concerned about local elections for state legislature, for mayors, small towns and cities around the country? >> those elections are extremely important, lawrence. i know we love to get caught up in what's going on in washington, d.c. with congress and the white house. but when the rubber meets the road, the things that are most important to the lives of the people, it's what happens on the state level. i mean, the folks in texas right now are feeling that. you know, because of the lack of leadership in their state. we need to make sure we're putting the right type of leaders in our state capitols, in our governor's mansions who will protect the interests of

all people. just today here in south carolina, they passed a heartbeat bill, a bill basically banning abortion in the state, basically protecting rapists and invading women's rights. that's just uncalled for. particularly when we need to expand medicaid so that folks have health care. protect our rural hospitals. >> jaime harrison, thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you so much, lawrence, and take care. stay safe. >> thank you. chairman jaime harrison gets tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. ♪♪ well, good evening once again. this was day 30 of the biden administration. texans are enduring a fourth night of freezing misery in the wake of a winter storm that seems to have unleashed a growing humanitarian crisis in our own country. an act of god followed by an

abject failure by man. meantime tonight, one man, ted cruz, is getting a whole lot of attention, none of it good, for leaving on vacation in cancun before thinking better of it, after one night at the ritz carlton. one night at the ritz-carlton, more on his story in just a bit. while the power is back on in all but about 350,000 homes, and that's a lot, but it's not 5 million, the weather has left exploded pipes, major floods, people's homes have been destroyed. while taps are dry and millions are going without running water, food is also now in short supply. grocery shelves, refrigerator cases are largely empty. getting away is something most people can't do. many highway overpasses are just closed because they're frozen. fuel is in short supply. gas stations running out. no one seems to have any propane. tonight in a great state of 30 million people, people are fo